Influence Map

I follow artist Evan 'Doc' Shaner's blog and he produced an Influence Map (template found here). I decided to do one myself. It was quite challenging finding actual influences and people I like. 

JOHNNY QUEST- Just fun adventure, and influence on my Newton Polo comic.

60s DOCTOR WHO- Patrick Troughton is my favourite Doctor and his acting has influenced the way I depict my professors, like mad uncles.

MIKE MIGNOLA- I love the inking on Mignola's work, the stark contrast of the black and white is so bold.

ROD SERLING- Creator of the Twilight Zone and Night Gallery. The stories were always odd and inventive and taught me a lot about storytelling. I love this spectral figure of him, almost omnipresent.

JULES VERNE- My first recognisable author. I love this kind of science fiction: exploration.

50s SCI-FI- There are so many classics that emerged from this era and the designs have stuck with us since. Flying saucers, bug-eyed aliens and the military that can't shoot for crap!

MILTON CANIFF- Creator and artist of Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon. Some of his panels had no pencils just directly inked. The action is fantastic. 

JEFF SMITH- First of all, I love his artwork, but it was the fluidity of his panel-to-panel action that I fell in love with. Check out BONE.

RAY HARRYHAUSEN- I remember being a six year old, eyes glued to the television, mesmerised by actors fighting skeletons, in a flawless fight scene. It began my interest in the behind-the-scenes of films.

DARWYN COOKE- What's great about Cooke's works that it is cartoony, but it doesn't hold back on the drama. His career is nothing more than a love letter to the golden/ silver age. Heroes are heroes.

INDIANA JONES- The ultimate adventurer. He was one of my childhood heroes and got me interested in exploration and archaeological adventures.

MONSTER MOVIES- Just as a whole classic monster movies, with their classic make-up, conventions and sets.

HERGE- What else can I say. Something just struck a chord the minute I opened Destination Moon as a kid. The Black Island is my favourite.

HITCHCOCK- The master of suspense. Just studying how Hitchcock creates suspense or the way he positions the camera is fascinating. My favourite was Hitchcock's favourite too, Shadow of a Doubt with Joseph Cotten.

OLD MAKE-UP- Old film effects in general really. What better way to illustrate that than 1969s Planet of the Apes, a film where everyone's jaw drops. People criticize old effects, but I am far more aware of those effects, because it is really there.

H.P. LOVECRAFT- The master of the bizarre. When I first read Lovecraft I wanted to write like him, but I couldn't. However it taught me about creating my own universe. At the Mountains of Madness cemented my love of arctic horrors. 

BERNIE WRIGHTSON- My introduction to Wrightson was his Frankenstein work. The detail and line work is sublime.

BATMAN:TAS- I like to think of The Animated Series as my era. The cartoons when I was younger weren't as condescending as the shows nowadays (granted there are exceptions). It was dark, edgy and incorporated every incarnation of Batman history, the detective angle of the Golden Age, the campyness of the silver age and the gritty edge of the bronze age. It is my favourite Batman period and when we read the comics, it's these voices we hear.

QUATERMASS- This spot is really saved for all of those classic serials, Flash Gordon, Radar Men from the Moon but out of all of them,  the Quatermass serials (and films) are my favourites . the character of Bernard Quatermass is one of my favourites and the writing of Nigel Kneale is so intelligent. You don't believe me. When first released, people actually left the pubs to watch it.

of course there are others, Looney Tunes, John Carpenter, Hayao Miyazaki, Holst, Mussorgsky, but it's a tight space and I had to cover a lot. I suggest you try it out.

You Open This Door With the Key of Imagination

You unlock this door with the key of imagination.

Beyond it is another dimension: A dimension of sound,

A dimension sight,

A dimension of mind,

You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance,

of things and ideas you've just crossed into

THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

I love the original Twilight Zone series. To me they are perfect short stories, in which they establish a bizarre scenario in five minutes, keep you intrigued, then blast you with a shock ending. I always feel that instead of reading Shakespeare, or watching Citizen Kane, students who want to write should watch the Twilight Zone. Lately I have been watching them because I am writing my own ghost film and it is almost like a tribute to this great show. The poster below depicts familiar images from the opening credits (various bits from all the series) and our guide to the Twilight Zone himself, Rod Serling (one of my heroes).

Gone With The Bride

The most romantic film ever made. A film set in a time of turmoil. A film with daring dialogue for the rime. That film is of course, The Bride of Frankenstein (1935). 

My poster is a parody of the classic Gone with the Wind poster.I used my own designs for horror's cutest couple, unless you've seen the film, in which case you know otherwise!

The Bride

You know those days when you wake up thinking... I feel like drawing The Bride of Frankenstein. So I did:

1

2

3

Inks

Pencils

I am not sure which is my favourite. Definitely either 2/3. The coloured version is not very thrilling. The others suit the quirkiness of the Bride better, I feel. I thought it would be fun to show the penciled and inked versions too.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

A tribute to the best giant monster all time! The king of Kaiju: GOJIRA!

Chuck at 100

Yesterday would have been Chuck Jones' 100th Birthday, were he still alive. For those who don't know, Chuck Jones was one of the talented people behind Looney Tunes. You can always tell a Chuck Jones short. A pun in the title, the characters were often down-to-earth, often questioning their strange predicament, a parody of different medias:

• What's Opera Doc- Wagnerian Operas
• Duck Dodgers in 24 1/2 Century- Space comics
• Duck Amuck- Animation

Chuck Jones produced my favourite of the Looney Tunes shorts. For proof of his excellence watch his famed "Hunting Trilogy", starting with Rabbit Fire (1950), Rabbit Seasoning (1952) and Duck, Rabbit, Duck (1953). For anyone who wants to write comedy, it is imperative you watch these three, merely for the timing. It is on the dot. It is a good example of using the same payoff, but the execution is always different. Rabbit Fire was the first cartoon to portray Daffy Duck as Bugs Bunny's conniving foil. 

Chuck we miss you. 

That's all Folks! 

Robocop Costume Revealed!

Alright, so the new Robocop suit was revealed earlier in the week for the upcoming remake. So okay let's take a look, I mean obviously Robocop is such an iconic character that they're going to do something really cool and new...

--SIGH--

Oh boy, you've screwed it up already. If you don't see what's wrong with it, don't worry, I'll explain. First of all, it's not Robocop. It's a robotic suit, yes, but not Robocop. Black, Robocop isn't black, he's a blue-grey with a cool pearlescent finish. Second, it's dull. Let's bring up the original.

Doesn't this look just more interesting? All those little dents and wires, the rivets, the bolts, it looks like a working machine. The new one, well just look at JIMSMASH's blog.  Yeah it looks like the Michael Keaton Batman suit. It is too streamlined and sleek. This seems to be a trend for modern robots. Gone are the days of bulky Robbies. Actually you know what this design should have been, I they covered up the face,it should have been Gort in the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. It's not as good as the original, but better than that thing hey had in there!

I don't get why this had to be remade. Robocop is a perfect film on its own. Maybe it will be okay, but why not do something new.

Jeez I need something to cheer me up. I know, a film in which Robbie the Robot, Gort and the Lost in Space Robot join forces, under the supervision of the HAL 9000, to clean up the streets of New York. How's that for a Robocop remake! (Okay I know that Robobcop is set in Detroit!) 

Past, Present and Future

For the past four/five weeks I have been working on an animated film. Again working on that goddam Lotte Reiniger style, it is a horror story set in the antarctic. Basically I was upset that Guillermo Del Toro said he wasn't going to make his adaptation of  At the Mountains of Madness, (easily my favourite of Lovecraft's books). Jeez Del Toro, first The Hobbit now this! You're crushing me Del!

Anyway, my film is basically a mash of At the Mountains of Madness, The Thing From Another World (1951) and John Carpenter's The Thing (1981). For some reason I love antarctic horrors. Probably because there's not many of them and they usually involve scientists, and everyone likes scientists! There is also a touch of the original King Kong (1933). The story is simple. It is the 1930s and Professor Atwill is travelling to the antarctic to find a group of archaeologists who haven't been in contact of five weeks.

Professor Atwill- Based on my comic Newton Polo

Captain West- Based on Jack Driscoll in the original King Kong 

What is this?

Afterwards I would like to work on a pencil animation. I want to make it look and feel a saturday Morning cartoon with a retro touch (yes I know I said retro, but I mean proper retro 50s/60s, not 80s).

For inspiration I was forced to watch old Jay Ward stuff (Rocky and Bullwinkle, Peabody and Sherman), Chuck Jones (if you do not know who this is then shame on you!), and various other shows like Teen Titans, Kim Possible and that Dial M for Monkey segment on Dexter's Laboratory. I am not sure what I want to do, whether it is my own character, or I would like to make a Zatanna: Mistress of Magic cartoon, but it would be silent, and Zatanna's gimmick is the spells are said backwards.

Then I would like to work on my Newton Polo comic. I have been fine-tuning the characters lately to make them easier to recreate in other panels and to make them pleasing to look at.

PHEW! So that's the nuts and bolts of things at the moment. Pretty busy as you can see. So thats why there hasn't been any new Perfect movies etc. I will post the odd drawing now and then, so the site isn't empty. 

Thank you for reading the long post.

Southern Belle

My third favourite X- Men, or X- Woman (what's the PC term?) Rogue. Ah really like the way she talks!

Wonder Woman: Warrior Princess

Partly inspired by Darwyn Cooke's design of the Amazonian in New Frontier (probably my favourite comic book). Obviously my work is nothing compared to Darwyn's work. The sword and shield are based on real greek designs. What I wanted was a design that could be used in the city setting and back on Themyscira (country of the Amazons). Something that Darwyn Cooke did that truly is inspired in New Frontier was making Wondie actually taller than Superman. He illustrates her as muscly, but feminine at the same time and I have no idea how he does it. 

This is when you realise it in New Frontier. First of all Wondie is sitting down, so you don't notice it. Then when she stands up she dwarfs Superman and if you can do that and tell him to get out, then you've got balls-- or ovaries, whatever the female equivalent is.

Oh, by the way. Don't you think Olivia Wilde should play Wonder Woman. To me she doesn't look like someone pretending to be an Amazonian Warrior. I also think she looks slightly mediterranean, because, what people seem to forget is Wonder Woman is greek!

The Flash

The Flash! Which Flash? Barry Allen, Bart Allen, Wally West, you choose. Me personally, I think it's the original, not Jay Garrick original, but silver age Barry Allen original. I like the washed out feel to this. i decided not to make the Flash overly muscly because he need to look quick and agile, though you have to give him some muscle, because he still needs to knock the stuffing out of Gorilla Grodd.

I love the Flash, because as we all know:

"No-one can outrun The FLASH!"

SHAZAM!

One of my favourite characters ever. All orphan Billy Batson has to do is shout the magic word SHAZAM! and he turns into Captain Marvel.